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Friday, July 5, 2013

Movie Review: V/H/S 2 (Confirmed:Good 1/2)

Can VHS 2 live up to the hype?

The original VHS,
released last year, was one of the most polarizing horror films in recent
memory, anthology or otherwise. While
some praised the film's creative element of using the VHS format to create suspense,
other proclaimed it as gimmicky and bloated with a nearly 2 hour running time. When VHS
2 was announced just a year after the original divided gore hounds across
the web the question arose asked was if the sequel could overcome the problems of the
original while at the same time continuing to take advantage of the film's
unique VHS premise for an anthology? Find out after the break……

VHS
2
fixes many of the mistakes the original had.
The film cuts down the run time from the original by about half an hour
which makes for a tighter, more well rounded horror anthology. As stated in the original VHS review: it is always hard to judge
an anthology because you always seem to have some bad films and some good films
throughout. Surprisingly this is not the
case with VHS 2's five shorts films: Tape
49/Frame Narrative directed by Simon Barrett, Clinical Trials directed by Adam Wingard, A Ride in the Park directed by Eduarado Sanchez and Gregg Hale, Safe Haven directed by: Gareth Huw Evans
and Timo Tjahjanto, and Alien Abduction
Slumber Party directed by Jason Eisner. All the films would qualify as “GOOD”, with Alien
Abduction Slumber Party teetering on “GREAT”. Just like in the original, VHS 2 does a nice job of
covering several horror sub genres while not being hand cuffed to them. Sub genres include everything from a zombie film to an alien abduction, and every time these recognizable horror
tropes were used it felt like new ground was being covered rather than homage
being paid to the classics of those sub genres.

While VHS 2 is
a more complete anthology than its predecessors, it still lacks some of the
downright scary gotcha moments that the original delivered. Overall, VHS
2 knows what it wants to be: a true horror anthology that uses disturbing elements for a narrative purpose rather than just for the sake of being
disturbing. Let’s just hope when the inevitable
VHS 3 rolls around the film makers
involved will be able to combine the downright scariness of the original VHS with the more complete and fresher
narrative of the sequel!